Adrian Beltre is hard to figure out. Sure, I obviously overrated him going into this year, and it’s so easy to blame his rise and fall on simply signing a huge contract, but he cannot be this bad. By all accounts and purposes, he is no loafer, and appears to at least be someone who cares and not actively mailing it in. He vehemently denies the whispers of steroids, but has seen his home run numbers go from 48 to 19 to 5 the past 2 1/2 years. With RISP, Beltre is putting on quite a show this year. In 62 at-bats, he is hitting a staggering .129. His OPS is an unreal 390. With 2 outs and RISP, he drops to a ridiculous .100/.206/.133 line. Not that he has been anything special hitting in other situations, but those lines of futility are taking it to another level.
The thinking was he just needed a year in the AL to get acclimated and a bounce back was in store this time around. After all, he was coming into his prime and only 27 years old, so more great years were ahead. Instead, he has been one of baseball’s worst hitters. At least he contributed on the basepaths, swiping nine steals early on; too bad he hasn’t had one since May 5th. Was the bone spur in his ankle that some credited to Beltre’s monstrous 2004 campaign really the difference? Supposedly, the injury prevented Beltre from reaching for the low-and-away pitch, something he was previously vulnerable to. Well, now with the ankle healed up, he is flailing like never before. But seriously, that can’t be it, can it? Someone please take a sledgehammer to this guy’s wheel as soon as possible; it’s at least worth a shot.
717, 729, 714, 1017, 716 and 635: those are Beltre’s OPS numbers for the last 5 1/2 years. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out which one is the outlier. The guy has a combined 14 extra-base hits on the year for crying out loud. Clearly, this year’s misery shouldn’t have come to me as quite the surprise that it has.
Manager Mike Hargrove came up with the harebrained scheme to recently move Beltre up to the second spot in the lineup – he with the .296 OBP. Still, it’s a move that seems to give Beltre’s fantasy value at least a glimmer of hope. Batting in the 2-hole, Beltre has seen an increase in numbers across the board. He has hit three of his five home runs, which have came in the last 11 games, a torrid pace by Beltre’s sub-standards. His OPS is 850 while batting second, compared to 635 overall on the year. He could actually contribute in runs scored, especially with Richie Sexson’s return to form. Hitting directly behind Ichiro, who’s suddenly batting .367 on the year, doesn’t hurt matters either. Maybe seeing more fastballs will help, but it’s hardly likely that the lineup switch is all it will take to turn Beltre’s season, and career for that matter, around. It’s hard to believe it was just two years ago when Beltre finished second to Barry Bonds in MVP voting, and it’s a memory that’s fading fast. If Beltre doesn’t change in a hurry, when you look up the term contract-year in the dictionary, Beltre’s face will be smiling right at you – smugly at that.
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